After weathering a late 4th quarter comeback from the Cavaliers, the Detroit Pistons hold on for for the 110 – 103 win and move to 4-0.
Raise your hand if you guessed that Blake Griffin would lead the Detroit Pistons in three-point percentage at any point throughout the season.
Yeah, me neither.
Of course, it has only been four games. No one believes that he will be able to go an entire season shooting 65 percent. But he is not only making his three-pointers at a high level.
He is taking them with confidence and that has made all the difference.
The Pistons front court duo of Griffin and Andre Drummond combined for 52 points and 32 rebounds on 20 of 30 shooting.
Drummond continued to show why he is the best rebounder in the league. He put together a 26 point, 22 rebound game.
That is his second 20-20 game of the young season.
The Pistons were in control for most of the game. The Cavaliers engineered a late comeback led by Kyle Korver, who scored 16 points in the 4th quarter.
On a four-point play from Korver, they cut the Pistons lead to six with 49.1 seconds remaining in the game.
Fortunately, the defense held on and the Cavaliers were forced to foul. The Pistons knocked down enough free throws to pull away with the win.
Despite being undefeated, there are still many things the Pistons will need to work on. They will still need to work on their interior defense, as they gave up 50 points in the paint to a team without their starting power forward.
They struggled as a team at the free throw line, shooting 58.6 percent.
Reggie Jackson, usually a good free throw shooter was the main culprit. He only made five of ten and missing three in the last minute of the game.
The team also committed 20 turnovers.
The Pistons will not continue to win games when they struggle with defense, free throws and turnovers. With two back-to-back meetings with the Boston Celtics on the horizon, the Detroit Pistons will have to put in some serious work to fix their team issues.
It is still far too early in the season to be overreacting to the Pistons hot start.
However, the fantastic play from both Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond is reason enough to be excited about the potential of this team in the Eastern Conference this year.